Musing Mondays (Jan 19)

For the first time on my blog I am succumbing to the allure of joining a bookish meme, lured in purely by the very name that was rattling around my cranium today morning. Also, this is a meme that gave me a choice of picking up one out of a list of topics tailored to take into account every kind of bookish happening that was likely to occur in a week.

This is the Musing Mondays meme hosted at Should be Reading by Miz B.

So of all the delectable choices on display, I chose the prompt that best suited me, which was – I bought the following book(s) last week.

This was the first haul of the year and therefore worthy of a post to itself.

The book were the result of a trip to the Blossom Book House (right nest to where the bomb blast happened a few days ago), which yields the most unexpected treasures every single time. The shop was as usual full of book lovers jostling for space, sprawled on tiny stools in the two feet wide aisles and enjoying their Sunday afternoons as best they could.

1) The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra – It was quite an old book published sometime in 1990 I think. However, it was the setting of the book which was the clincher for this one – Benaras. Having visited the city during election time just last year, I still wish I could have explored it better. It was so different from any place I have ever been before, although it is supposed to have much the same demographic as Dharamshala, of people in search of spiritual peace.

2) Mumbai Fables by Gyan Prakash – A movie is being made on this book by a very reputed Indian director and was therefore really hubby’s pick of the day, although I am sure I will read it before he does.

3) Asterix and Obelix (Omnibus 8) – I have been collecting the comic strips for the past few years now and apparently this omnibus edition is already out of print, so finding one is always a win-win. Secretly though, I prefer Tintin to Asterix, only during a fit of generosity I gave those books to my young cousin and have never forgiven myself for that lapse in judgement. Worst, he loves them so much that any chance of stealing them back has become out of the question.

4) The complete guide to Painting and Drawing techniques and Materials by Colin Hayes  – When I picked this book up, I was pretty sure it would be a repeat of all the similar art books one comes across, but it contained beautiful paintings by various artists in various mediums, withh essays on the different techniques used and was a novelty.

The Meme also asked a question- ‘How many books do you have in your personal collection?‘

The answer – 812